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DEVELOPMENT OF CEMENTED ALLOY CARBIDES FOR HARD ROCK BORING

An investigation was made of the use of ordered alloy carbides to develop superior cutting tool materials for rock boring applications. To accomplish the objective of developing superior cutting tool materials, the effort during the first year has focussed on the selection of an extremely promising ordered alloyed carbide, specifically, (Ti, V)C, and on developing a cemented alloy carbide cutting tool material by incorporating this carbide within an appropriate binder material to yield the required toughness for rock drilling and boring. To this end, powder metallurgical techniques have been perfected to yield an acceptable metallurgical microstructure for the cemented alloy carbide. In addition, methods to test the mechanical properties of these structures, and thereby evaluate their potential for use as cutting tool materials have been investigated.